T 


or 


rey 


Tke  Life  (xn^deaH 
of   D.  L  Moody 


^V^^'^Q"' 


'-■•'V 


MAT  1-3    1^^'' 


DEATH     OF 
D.    L.  ivIOODY 

#    ^    ^    ^    ,* 


*   ^  V* 


■^ 


R.    A.    TORREY 


Divistoa       Tlr"  A. 


V 


/ 


Lessons   from 
Life  and  Death  o 

D.  L.  MOODY 


BY 


Rev.  R.  a.  .ITORREY 

Superintendent  of  the  Bible  Institute 
Chicago 


New  York       Chicago       Toronto 

Fleming  H.  Revell  Company 

Publishers  of  Evangelical  Literature 


Copyright,  igoo 

BY 

Fleming  H.  Revell  Company. 


Lessons  From  the  Life  and  Death  of 
D.  L.  Moody 

"  By  the  grace  of  God  I  am  what  I  am  :  and  His 
grace  which  was  bestowed  upon  me  was  not  in  vain ; 
but  I  labored  more  abundantly  than  they  all;  yet 
not  I,  but  the  grace  of  God  which  was  with  me." — 
I  Cor.  XV.  lo. 

This  passage  of  Scripture  sums  up  the 
life  of  the  Apostle  Paul  in  a  single  sen- 
tence. It  also  sums  up,  describes,  ex- 
plains and  interprets  the  life  of  D.  L. 
Moody.  Mr.  Moody  differed  in  many 
notable  respects  from  any  other  man  of 
the  century.  This  verse  explains  wherein 
he  differed  and  why  he  differed.  He  has 
labored  more  than  we  all,  and  accom- 
plished more  than  we  all;  but  it  was  al- 
together the  grace  of  God  that  made  him 
to  differ.  The  grace  of  God  bestowed 
upon  him  "was  not  in  vain."  He  let 
grace  have  its  perfect  work.  The  grace 
bestowed  upon  us  is  often  in  vain.  We 
will  not  accept  it  in  its  fullness  and  let  it 
work  out  its  glorious  consummation. 
3 


4  Lessons  From  the  Life 

The  life  and  death  of  Mr.  Moody  are 
full  of  lessons.  Lessons  that  it  would 
take  volumes  to  fully  recount.  We  must 
confine  ourselves  to  some  of  those  that 
are  most  striking  and  fundamental. 

I.  The  first  lesson  is  the  great  possi- 
bilities that  are  open  through  the  grace  of 
God,  to  a  poor,  uneducated,  and  spiritu- 
ally unpromising  boy.  His  parents  were 
poor;  his  father  a  country  stone  mason 
with  seven  children.  All  his  property 
consisted  of  a  plain  little  house,  with  one 
or  two  acres  of  poor  land,  and  this  mort- 
gaged. When  the  oldest  child  was  but 
thirteen  and  Dwight  only  four,  the  father 
suddenly  died.  The  widow  was  left 
with  seven  children  to  support,  and  the 
mortgaged  home.  A  month  after  the  fa- 
ther's death,  two  more  children  were 
born.  It  was  a  life  of  hard  toil  and  little 
promise  that  D.  L.  Moody  faced  from 
early  boyhood.  He  had  meagre  oppor- 
tunities for  education,  and  did  not  take 


and  Death  of  D.  L.  Moody      5 

to  what  little  he  had.  Furthermore  he 
was  not  a  spiritually  minded  boy.  When 
he  offered  himself  for  church  member- 
ship in  Boston  at  eighteen  years  of  age, 
he  was  refused  immediate  admission  to 
the  church.  The  pastor  and  church  have 
been  criticised  and  laughed  at  for  this, 
but  the  pastor  and  church  were  right,  for 
he  knew  so  little  about  salvation,  that 
when  the  question  was  put  to  him 
"What  has  Christ  done  for  us  all,  for 
you,  which  entitles  Him  to  our  love,"  his 
reply  was  "I  do  not  know.  I  think 
Christ  has  done  a  good  deal  for  us,  but  I 
do  not  think  of  anything  particular  as  I 
know  of."  But  the  church  while  hold- 
ing him  back,  did  not  cast  him  off  nor 
neglect  him.  It  appointed  a  committee 
of  two  to  watch  over  him  with  kindness 
and  teach  him  the  way  of  God  more  per- 
fectly. But  this  poor  boy,  poorly  edu- 
cated, poor  in  spiritual  promise,  became 
the  mightiest  religious  leader  of  the  cen- 


6  Lessons  From  the  Life 

tury;  and  I  think  it  may  be  added  the 
greatest  man  of  the  century;  for  when 
the  fame  and  influence  of  our  great  gen- 
erals, great  statesmen,  great  authors,  and 
great  scholars  have  been  forgotten,  his 
fame  and  influence,  and  thank  God  his 
influence  more  than  his  fame,  will  not  be 
^forgotten,  but  will  live  on. 

2.  The  second  lesson  is  the  impor- 
tance of  personal  work.  Young  Moody 
was  not  converted  by  a  great  sermon, 
but  by  the  quiet  personal  work  of  a  lay- 
man— his  Sunday-school  teacher.  Have 
many  sermons  been  preached  in  this  cen- 
tury that  have  wrought  so  much,  if  we 
look  at  ultimate  results,  as  the  personal 
dealing  of  this  Sunday-school  teacher  ? 
Let  Sunday-school  teachers  take  courage. 

The  importance  of  personal  work  is 
taught  not  only  by  Mr.  Moody's  conver- 
sion, but  also  by  his  life  work.  It  was 
by  untiring  effort  as  a  personal  tvorker, 
on  the  street,  in  the  store,  in  hotels,  in 


and  Death  of  D.  L.  Moody      7 

saloons,  on  the  cars,  everywhere,  that 
Mr.  Moody  learned  to  be  a  mighty  worker 
for  Christ. 

3.  The  third  lesson  that  we  should 
learn  from  the  life  of  Mr.  Moody  is  the 
power  of  persistence.  As  we  have  al- 
ready seen,  Mr.  Moody  had  little  promise 
when  he  started,  but  he  had  one  thing 
that  always  has  large  promise  in  it.  He 
had  the  habit  of  keeping  at  anything 
he  undertook,  until  he  accomplished  it. 
Nothing  ever  discouraged  him.  At  the 
outset  everything  was  against  him  as  a 
public  speaker.  His  grammar  was  very 
bad;  his  sentences  were  hard  to  under- 
stand. He  had  not  much  to  say  that 
was  worth  listening  to.  But  he  was 
sure  that  God  had  called  him  to  speak, 
and  so,  though  people  of  good  sense  ad- 
vised him  to  keep  still,  he  kept  on  talk- 
ing until  he  could  get  more  hearers,  and 
more  deeply  interested  hearers,  and  more 
responsive  hearers  than  any  man  of  his 


8  Lessons  From  the  Life 

day.  During  the  last  meetings  of  his 
life,  he  spoke  to  an  audience  of  12,000 
people,  and  many  thousands  were  turned 
away  who  could  not  get  in.  In  the 
truest  sense,  he  was  without  question 
the  greatest  orator  of  our  day. 

His  persistence  was  shown  also  in  his 
getting  a  place  for  himself  in  Sunday- 
school  work.  He  was  not  wanted;  but 
he  kept  pegging  away,  until  he  not  only 
had  a  great  Sunday-school  himself,  but 
largely  revolutionized  the  Sunday-school 
methods  of  the  world. 

He  had  hard  work  to  get  recognition 
among  Christians.  He  was  at  one  pe- 
riod called  "crazy  Moody,"  later  he  was 
the  target  of  the  most  bare-faced  and 
outrageous  falsehood.  The  first  thing  I 
ever  heard  about  Mr.  Moody  was  a  lie, 
which  I  took  for  granted  was  true. 
When  he  began  his  great  work  in 
London,  it  was  reported  that  he  and 
Sankey  were  sent  there  by  a  firm   of 


and  Death  of  D.  L.  Moody      9 

organ  makers  at  a  salary  of  five  hundred 
pounds  per  year.  One  of  the  leading 
dailies  in  New  York  City  stated  in  an 
editorial,  June  22d,  1875:  "We  are 
credibly  informed  that  Messrs.  Moody 
and  Sankey  were  sent  to  England  by 
Mr.  Barnum  as  a  matter  of  speculation." 
This  lying  never  stopped.  A  number  of 
falsehoods  have  appeared  in  religious 
and  secular  papers  within  a  year.  Some 
of  them  since  his  death;  of  his  great 
wealth,  and  of  the  pecuniary  demands 
he  made  wherever  he  held  meetings.  I 
know  from  positive  personal  knowledge, 
these  statements  to  be  absolutely  false. 
But  in  spite  of  all  this  opposition  and 
falsehood,  Mr.  Moody  went  right  on  to 
the  goal  without  being  embittered.  He 
said  to  me  one  day  last  summer,  "We 
will  let  others  do  the  talking  and  try  and 
keep  right  with  God  and  go  ahead." 

4.     The     fourth     lesson     from     Mr. 
Moody's  life  is  the  power  of  a  consum- 


id         Lessons  From  the  Life 

ing  passion  for  souls.  Very  soon  after 
his  conversion,  Mr.  Moody  became  bur- 
dened for  the  salvation  of  others,  and  in 
season  and  out  of  season,  gave  himself  up 
to  the  work  of  bringing  men  to  Christ. 
He  would  speak  to  them  in  all  sorts  of 
places  and  at  all  hours  of  the  day  and 
night  about  their  soul's  interest.  He  was 
often  reproached  for  his  indiscretion  in 
this  matter,  but  not  infrequently  in  the 
very  case  where  he  was  told  that  he 
had  done  more  harm  than  good,  those 
spoken  to  afterward  accepted  Christ,  and 
dated  their  conviction  to  Mr.  Moody's 
unseasonable  importunities.  He  was  at 
it  and  always  at  it.  He  could  not  pass  a 
crowd  of  men  without  wishing  to  preach 
to  them  the  gospel.  Riding  through  a 
dense  crowd  with  him  in  Chicago  when 
the  mayor.  Carter  Harrison,  lay  in  state  in 
the  Court  House,  he  turned  suddenly  to 
me  and  said,  "Torrey,  this  will  not  do, 
we  must  preach  to  these  men."     One  of 


and  Death  of  D.  L.  Moody     1 1 

the  opera  houses  across  the  way  was 
immediately  secured,  and  all-day  meet- 
ings began. 

Whoever  came  to  speak  to  him  in  his 
office,  reporters,  and  strangers  of  all 
kinds,  were  pretty  sure  to  be  approached 
on  the  subject  of  their  soul's  salvation 
before  he  got  through  with  them. 

There  is  nothing  that  has  so  stirred 
my  heart  in  reviewing  the  facts  of  his 
life,  and  brought  to  me  such  condemna- 
tion for  neglect  of  opportunities,  as  this 
constant  overwhelming  burden  for  souls 
that  always  possessed  Mr.  Moody. 

3.  The  fifth  great  lesson  taught  by 
his  life,  is  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
The  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit  was  illus- 
trated in  many  ways  in  his  life. 

(i)  The  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
was  shown  in  his  conversion.  Mr. 
Moody  did  not  take  naturally  to  religious 
things  or  to  orthodoxy.  He  went  to  an 
orthodox  Sunday-school  and  church  be- 


12         Lessons  From  the  Life 

cause  his  uncle  demanded  it  as  a  condi- 
tion of  giving  him  a  position.  He  dis- 
liked the  church  and  disliked  the  school. 
But  at  last  the  Holy  Spirit  began  to  work 
in  his  heart.  How  thorough  was  his 
conversion,  though  it  was  slow.  Who- 
ever had  an  intenser  and  deeper  love  for 
the  Sunday-school  and  for  the  church 
than  he  came  to  have  ?  It  was  the  Holy 
Spirit  who  wrought  the  change.  His 
Sunday-school  teacher  and  Rev.  Dr.  Ed- 
ward N.  Kirk  were  only  instruments 
whom  the  Holy  Spirit  used. 

(2)  The  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit  was 
shown  again  in  the  transformation  of  his 
character,  and  in  its  development  into 
its  present  strength  and  beauty.  Many 
chapters  could  be  written  on  Mr. 
Moody's  singular  tender-heartedness, 
abounding  sympathy,  unconquerable 
charity,  almost  matchless  humility,  un- 
daunted courage,  absolute  freedom  from 
the  love  of  money  and  the  praise  of  men, 


and  Death  of  D.  L.  Moody     13 

Intense  hatred  of  sham,  consideration  for 
his  fellow-men,  consuming  passion  for 
souls,  overflowing  joyfulness  and  hope, 
and  all  the  other  elements  of  strength 
and  beauty  in  his  many  sided  character. 
None  of  these  things  were  natural  to  Mr. 
Moody;  they  were  all  the  Holy  Spirit's 
work.  They  were  the  work  of  Him 
whose  fruit  is  "  love,  joy,  peace,  long- 
suffering,  gentleness,  goodness,  faith, 
meekness,  temperance." 

(3)  The  power  of  the  Spirit  was  seen 
again  in  the  Spiritual  illumination  that 
came  to  him.  We  have  seen  that  Mr. 
Moody  was  not  naturally  bright,  but 
very  dull  in  his  spiritual  perceptions;  but 
to  what  a  clearness  and  depth  of  spir- 
itual perception  he  attained.  It  was 
wonderful.  Oftentimes  has  he  taken  us 
all  with  him  as  he  described  the  beauties 
and  wonders  and  glories  that  he  saw  in 
the  word  of  God  and  in  the  Christ.  It 
was    the    Holy  Spirit  that  taught  him 


14         Lessons  From  the  Life 

these  things, — the  same  Holy  Spirit  who 
is  willing  to  be  your  teacher  and  mine. 

(4)  The  power  of  the  Spirit  was  seen 
again  in  his  effective  service.  "  What  is 
the  secret  of  that  man's  success,"  many 
have  asked  me.  One  of  the  easiest  ques- 
tions that  could  be  asked.  He  had  power. 
But  where  did  he  get  that  strange  power 
by  which  he  swayed  the  affections  and 
wills  of  men  ?  He  knew,  and  we  may 
all  know.  It  was  the  Holy  Ghost  upon 
him.  It  was  Christ's  own  promise  real- 
ized,— **Ye  shall  receive  power  after  that 
the  Holy  Ghost  is  come  upon  you." 
(Acts  i.  18.)  Mr.  Moody  did  not  always 
have  that  power.  It  came  at  a  definite 
time  in  his  life  and  in  a  definite  way. 
Two  women  came  to  him  and  said, 
**We  are  praying  for  you."  He  was  a 
little  vexed,  and  asked  why  they  were 
praying  for  him,  why  ihey  did  not  pray 
for  the  unsaved.  They  replied — **we 
are    praying    that    you    may   have    the 


and  Death  of  D.  L.  Moody     15 

power."  These  words  sank  deep  into 
his  heart,  and  there  came  a  time  when 
God  interpreted  the  message.  He  went 
to  these  women  to  pray  with  him  and 
fairly  rolled  on  the  floor  in  an  agony  of 
desire  and  prayer.  Then  he  went  alone 
with  God,  and  shut  himself  in  to  wait 
upon  God,  and  after  a  very  definite  ex- 
perience with  the  Holy  Spirit,  he  entered 
into  the  life  of  power.  When  you  and  I 
have  listened  to  his  words,  oftentimes 
they  have  seemed  quite  ordinary,  yet 
they  have  impressed  us  as  the  words  of 
almost  no  other  man.  What  did  it 
mean  ?  They  were  uttered  in  the  power 
of  the  Holy  Ghost.  The  last  public 
words  that  Mr.  Moody  ever  spoke  in  the 
Bible  Institute,  were  about  this  experi- 
ence, and  the  possibility  of  every  Chris- 
tian having  it,  and  our  responsibility  to 
have  it. 

6.     The  sixth  lesson  from  Mr.  Moody's 
life  is  the  power  of  the  Bible  when  fully 


i6         Lessons  From  the  Life 

believed,  patiently  studied  and  faithfully 
preached.  What  an  unanswerable  dem- 
onstration of  the  power  of  the  Bible  there 
was  in  the  life,  and  in  the  death  too,  of 
Mr.  Moody! 

We  see  demonstrated  in  him  what  a 
power  there  is  in  the  Bible  to  draw  men. 
There  are  those  who  fancy  that  one  must 
take  up  topics  and  truth  outside  the  Bible 
if  he  is  to  draw  and  hold  the  crowds.  I 
hear  it  constantly  said,  **  If  you  are  going 
to  draw  and  hold  the  masses,  you  must 
give  them  something  beside  the  hack- 
neyed truth;  you  must  give  them  some- 
thing fresh  and  new."  But  who  else 
in  our  day  has  drawn  and  held  such 
crowds  to  the  very  last  as  has  Mr. 
Moody.  And  these  crowds  were  com- 
posed of  all  classes;  rich  and  poor, 
scholars,  men  of  science,  statesmen, 
noblemen,  students,  uneducated  men  and 
women,  thieves,  harlots,  murderers, 
criminals    of    all    sorts,  absolutely    all 


and  Death  of  D.  L.  Moody     17 

classes,  and  what  had  he  to  give  them  ? — 
absolutely  nothing  but  the  Bible.  Noth- 
ing else  draws  like  that. 

But  we  see  demonstrated  in  him  not 
only  the  power  of  the  Bible  to  draw  men, 
but  something  higher  far;  the  power  of 
the  Bible  to  save  men.  He  not  only  drew 
vast  audiences  to  hear,  but  thousands, 
ten  of  thousands,  hundreds  of  thousands 
have  gone  away  from  hearing  him  saved. 
Saved  by  the  power  of  this  book.  Some 
wise,  advanced,  philosophical,  and  very 
self-sufficient  preachers  have  laughed 
at  Mr.  Moody's  narrowness  and  his 
medisevalism;  but  let  them  point  to 
results  one  hundredth  part  as  beneficent 
as  those  that  accompanied  his  "narrow 
and  antiquated  preaching,"  or  else  keep 
still,  unless  they  are  desirous  of  making 
themselves  the  laughing  stock  of  all  men 
of  sense. 

The  Word  of  God  had  such  power  in 
Mr.  Moody's  hands,  first,  because  he  thor- 


i8         Lessons  From  the  Life 

oughly  believed  it  from  end  to  end.  The 
time  other  men  spent  in  picking  it  to 
pieces,  he  spent  in  feeding  upon  it.  The 
difference  between  Mr.  Moody  and  many 
a  college  and  seminary  bred  preacher,  is 
the  difference  between  the  man  who  eats 
a  good  dinner  and  the  man  who  criticises 
it,  and  tries  to  display  his  knowedge  of 
cookery. 

(i)  He  not  only  believed  the  Bible; 
he  studied  it.  There  are  many  who  be- 
lieve theoretically  that  the  Bible  is  the 
word  of  God,  but  they  do  not  dig  into  it. 
Mr.  Moody  did.  It  has  been  said  that 
Mr.  Moody  was  not  a  student,  but  he 
was  a  student,  a  student  of  one  book, 
and  that  book  more  worthy  of  study  than 
all  other  books  put  together — the  Bible. 
If  he  had  not  been  a  student  of  the  Bible 
he  never  would  have  become  what  he 
was. 

(2)  But  he  not  only  believed  the  Bible 
and  studied  the  Bible,  he  preached  it — 


and  Death  of  D.  L.  Moody     19 

in  season  and  out  of  season,  on  all  pos- 
sible occasions,  to  large  crowds  and  to  a 
single  hearer.  He  was  ever  pouring  forth 
Bible  truth. 

7.  The  seventh  lesson  from  his  life  is 
the  power  of  prayer.  Mr.  Moody  be- 
lieved in  a  God  who  answers  prayer;  and 
his  life  was  a  constant  demonstration 
that  his  faith  was  true.  It  was  prayer 
that  made  the  obscure  man  noted. 

After  the  Chicago  fire  he  went  to  Lon- 
don to  rest,  and  to  learn  from  the  Bible 
scholars  there.  He  had  no  intention  of 
preaching.  One  Sunday  morning  he  was 
persuaded  to  preach  in  a  church  in  Lon- 
don. Everything  about  the  service 
dragged.  He  wished  that  he  had  never 
consented  to  preach.  There  was  a 
woman  in  the  city  who  had  heard  of  Mr. 
Moody's  work  in  America,  and  had  been 
asking  God  to  send  him  to  London. 
This  woman  was  an  invalid.  Her  sister 
was  present  at  the  church  that  Sunday 


20         Lessons  From  the  Life 

morning.  When  this  hearer  reached 
home  she  asked  her  sister  to  guess  who 
had  spoken  for  them  that  morning.  She 
made  one  guess  after  another  of  those 
with  whom  her  pastor  was  in  the  habit 
of  exchanging,  and  then  gave  it  up.  Her 
sister  said  *'No,  Mr.  Moody  from  Chi- 
cago." The  sick  woman  turned  pale  and 
said  "This  is  an  answer  to  my  prayer, 
(f  I  had  known  that  he  was  to  be  at  our 
church,  I  should  have  eaten  nothing  this 
morning,  but  waited  on  God  in  prayer. 
Leave  me  alone  this  afternoon;  do  not 
let  any  one  come  to  see  me;  do  not  send 
me  anything  to  eat."  All  that  afternoon 
this  woman  gave  herself  to  prayer.  As 
Mr.  Moody  preached  that  night,  he  soon 
became  conscious  that  there  was  a  differ- 
ent atmosphere  in  the  church.  "The 
powers  of  an  unseen  world  seemed  to 
fall"  upon  him  and  his  hearers.  As  he 
drew  to  a  close  he  felt  impressed  to  give 
out  an  invitation,     He  asked  for  all  who 


and  Death  of  D.  L.  Moody    2 1 

would  accept  Christ  to  rise.  Four  or  five 
hundred  people  rose.  He  thought  it 
must  be  that  they  misunderstood  him, 
and  put  the  question  several  ways  that 
there  might  be  no  mistake.  But  no,  they 
had  understood.  He  then  asked  them  to 
go  to  an  adjoining  room.  As  they  passed 
out,  he  asked  the  pastor  of  the  church 
who  these  people  were.  He  replied:  "I 
do  not  know."  "Are  they  your  peo- 
ple.^" "Some  of  them."  "Are  they 
Christians.^"  "I  do  not  think  so."  In 
that  adjoining  room  he  put  the  question 
very  strongly,  but  still  there  were  just  as 
many  who  rose.  He  told  them  to  meet 
their  pastor  the  next  night.  Next  day  he 
left  for  Dublin,  but  no  sooner  had  he 
reached  there  than  he  received  a  telegram 
from  the  pastor  saying  that  he  must  re- 
turn and  help  him,  as  a  great  revival  had 
broken  out  and  there  were  more  out  the 
second  night  than  the  first.  Hundreds 
were  added  to  the  church  at  the  time. 


22         Lessons  From  the  Life 

That  was  the  beginning  of  his  work  as 
an  international  evangelist. 

Few  men  have  had  so  many  people 
praying  for  them,  and  to  that  fact  much 
of  his  success  was  due.  Many  are  say- 
ing, "We  shall  never  have  another 
Moody";  but  we  shall,  in  everything 
that  is  essential,  if  as  many  people  take 
to  praying  as  earnestly  for  some  other 
man.  The  great  Scotch,  Irish  and  English 
revivals  under  Mr.  Moody  in  1873,  1874, 
and  1875,  were  due  more  to  the  remark- 
able praying  to  which  he  moved  men 
than  to  the  remarkable  preaching  which 
he  did  himself. 

It  was  by  prayer  he  overcame  difficul- 
ties. When  great  and  apparently  unsur- 
mountable  difficulties  rose  in  any  path  he 
was  pursuing,  how  often  he  would  say, 
"  Let  us  take  this  to  God  in  prayer."  Then 
how  easily  he  led  us  all  into  God's  very 
presence  and  with  what  mighty  power 
of  simplicity  and  faith  he  took  hold  upon 


and  Death  of  D.  L.  Moody     23 

God.  Then  the  difficulty  was  overcome. 
Only  last  summer  great  obstacles  rose  to 
projects  that  were  dear  to  him  and  me. 
One  day  he  drove  up  to  my  house  and 
said,  **  1  want  you  to  ride  with  me."  As 
we  rode  up  "  Lover's  Retreat,"  we  talked 
all  these  things  over,  and  when  we 
reached  a  quiet  spot  he  laid  down  the 
lines  and  said,  "now  pray."  After  that 
he  led  in  prayer — just  took  hold  of  God 
in  prayer  in  that  way  he  had,  and  that 
settled  the  difficulty.  The  work  has 
gone  on  all  right.  Thus  he  overcame  ob- 
stacles by  an  appeal  to  Him  to  whom 
"nothing  is  too  hard." 

By  prayer  he  got  money  for  the  Lord's 
work.  Some  people  have  an  idea  that 
Mr.  Moody  "hustled"  for  money,  and 
so  he  did;  but  his  dependence  was  upon 
God,  and  prayer.  God  heard  him. 
During  the  World's  Fair  he  said  one  day 
as  the  inner  council  of  workers  sat  down 
to  dinner,  "We  need  $7,000.00  for  the 


24         Lessons  From  the  Life 

work  to-day,  $1,000.00  has  come  in;  I 
do  not  know  where  the  other  $6,000.00 
is  to  come  from,  but  we  must  have  it,  let 
us  pray  for  it  before  we  eat."  In  simple 
trust  in  God  he  took  the  matter  to  Him 
in  prayer.  We  were  long  at  the  table 
discussing  the  work.  Before  the  dinner 
was  over,  there  came  a  knock  at  the  door, 
a  telegram  was  handed  to  Mr.  Moody 
which  he  opened  and  read,  and  then 
passed  on  to  me  to  read  to  the  group.  It 
read  something  like  this :  "  D.  L.  Moody : 
your  friends  have  taken  up  at  the  close 
of  this  morning's  session  an  offering  for 
your  work  in  Chicago.  $6,000  has  been 
subscribed,  more  to  follow. 

"H.  M.  Moore." 

Mr.  Moore  has  since  told  me  that  as 
that  morning  session  drew  to  a  close. 
Dr.  Gordon,  who  was  presiding,  said  to 
him,  "I  have  a  feeling  that  Mr.  Moody 
needs  money  for  his  work  in  Chicago, 


and  Death  of  D.  L.  Moody     25 

what  do  you  think  of  taking  up  a  collec- 
tion ?"  He  agreed,  with  the  result  men- 
tioned. That  opportune  feeling  must 
have  come  to  Dr.  Gordon  about  the  time 
that  we  knelt  in  prayer  in  Chicago. 

One  day  last  summer  Mr.  Moody 
found  to  his  surprise  that  $20,000  was 
needed  at  once  for  the  schools  in  North- 
field  and  Chicago.  He  told  no  one  about 
it,  but  went  alone  with  God  and  prayed, 
"Send  me  this  $20,000,  and  send  it  in 
such  a  way  that  I  will  know  that  it 
comes  from  Thee."  The  manner  of  its 
coming  was  so  manifestly  from  God 
that  no  person  with  any  spiritual  per- 
ception could  doubt  for  a  moment  who 
sent  it.  Mr.  Moody  has  received  several 
millions  of  dollars  for  one  form  of  Chris- 
tian work  and  another,  and  all  in  answer 
to  prayer. 

8.  The  eighth  lesson  from  Mr. 
Moody's  life  is  the  power  of  faith.  Mr. 
Moody  believed  that  there  was  nothing 


26         Lessons  From  the  Life 

too  hard  for  the  Lord;  that  the  Lord 
could  and  would  do  great  things,  even 
with  him,  and  God  did  not  disappoint 
him.  He  never  disappoints  one  whose 
faith  is  really  in  Him  and  not  in  himself. 
Mr.  Moody's  faith  was  daring,  but  the 
realization  fully  met  the  faith. 

9.  The  ninth  lesson  is  the  power  of 
humility.  He  loved  to  quote  some  one's 
saying,  *'  Faith  gets  the  most,  love  works 
the  most,  and  humility  keeps  the  most." 
His  own  life  was  a  commentary  upon 
these  words.  He  got  much  by  faith,  he 
kept  it  by  humility.  It  would  have  been 
so  easy  for  one  rising  by  such  marvellous 
strides  from  utter  obscurity  to  world- 
wide renown  to  become  puffed  up,  but  he 
never  yielded  to  this  temptation.  When 
I  first  became  acquainted  with  him 
twenty-one  years  ago,  nothing  so  much 
impressed  me  as  his  humility.  He  con- 
stantly put  himself  in  the  background 
and  put  others  forward.     So  it  was  to 


and  Death  of  D.  L.  Moody    27 

the  end.  He  refused  again  and  again  to 
speak  at  Northfield,  because  he  wished 
to  sit  as  a  learner  at  the  feet  of  two 
young  men  thirty-three  years  old.  He 
was  constantly  expecting  to  learn  from 
other  people. 

He  would  not  allow  his  photograph  to 
be  publicly  sold,  thinking  that  all  this 
picture  business  ministered  to  vanity,  as 
it  doubtless  does.  When  he  held  his 
last  meetings  in  this  city,  I  noticed  that  a 
student  had  Mr.  Moody's  pictures  ex- 
posed for  sale.  I  knew  he  would  not 
like  it  and  went  and  told  him.  **What!  " 
he  said  excitedly,  "go  get  them  away  at 
once." 

He  hated  all  that  smacked  of  boasting. 
I  once  spoke  of  my  health.  He  stopped 
me  at  once  and  said  very  earnestly, 
*' Don't  boast,  don't  boast,  I  never  knew 
anything  but  evil  to  come  of  it." 

How  many  men  whom  God  has  led 
out  and  greatly  used  in  America  have 


28        Lessons  From  the  Life 

become  puffed  up,  and  God  has  had 
to  lay  them  aside;  but  Mr.  Moody 
was  never  laid  aside.  God  used  him  to 
the  end.  Mr.  Moody  kept  low,  and  the 
last  four  hours  of  his  life  were  the 
mightiest  and  most  glorious  of  all.  The 
very  gates  of  Heaven  opened  so  wide  for 
him  to  enter,  that  we  too  got  glimpses 
of  the  beyond,  as  he  passed  in. 

10.  The  tenth  lesson  is  the  power  of 
a  wholly  surrendered  life.  Mr.  Moody 
was  wholly  given  up  to  God.  1  do  not 
mean  that  he  was  a  perfect  man.  He 
was  not.  I  have  never  met  a  perfect 
man,  nor  do  1  expect  to  until  I  see  the 
Christ.  But  while  he  was  not  perfect, 
he  was  wholly  God's.  Once  when  we 
were  talking  upon  a  subject  upon  which 
we  differed  widely,  he  said,  **Why, 
Torrey,  if  1  thought  that  God  told  me 
to  jump  out  that  window,  1  would  jump 
right  out  of  it  at  once."  I  believe  he 
would.     He  once  said,  "It  yet  remains 


and  Death  of  D.  L.  Moody     29 

to  be  seen  what  God  will  do  with  a  man 
wholly  given  up  to  Him."  I  doubt  if  it 
altogether  remains  to  be  seen.  I  think 
we  can  see  very  much  of  it  in  Mr. 
Moody  himself. 

II.  The  eleventh  lesson  from  the  life 
and  death  of  Mr.  Moody  is  the  reality 
and  nearness  of  the  world  beyond  the 
grave.  About  four  hours  before  his  final 
falling  asleep,  Mr.  Moody  passed  within 
the  gates,  and  then  came  back  and  spoke 
a  little  of  what  he  had  seen.  He  said: 
"Earth  is  receding;  Heaven  is  opening; 
God  is  calling."  Later  he  added,  "  I  have 
been  within  the  gates;  I  have  seen  the 
children's  faces."  Others  have  had 
similar  experiences.  Stephen  had.  Be- 
fore he  fell  asleep  he  cried,  "  Behold!  I 
see  the  Heavens  opened,  and  the  Son  of 
Man  standing  on  the  right  hand  of  God." 
Paul  also  had,  when  he  was  "caught  up 
even  to  the  third  heaven,"  (perhaps  when 
he  was  drawn  out  as  dead  at  Lystra)  and 


30         Lessons  From  the  Life 

"heard  unspeakable  words  which  it  is 
not  lawful  for  a  man  to  utter."  Gilbert 
Tennant  also  had,  who  seemed  to  die  and 
then  came  back  and  said  he  had  seen 
things  *' not  lawful  to  utter."  The  veil 
between  this  world  and  the  other  is  not 
so  very  thick  after  all. 

12.  The  last  lesson  is  the  power  of 
faith  in  God,  in  Christ,  and  in  the  Bible, 
to  banish  all  fear  of  death,  and  to  trans- 
form sorrow  into  rejoicing  and  triumph. 

For  four  hours  Mr.  Moody  faced  death 
without  a  tremor.  Nay,  he  rejoiced  in  it 
and  welcomed  it.  Standing  midway  in 
the  stream  he  said,  **No  pain,  no  valley! 
Is  this  death  ?  It  is  not  bad.  It  is  sweet. 
It  is  bliss."  Later  he  said,  "This  is  glo- 
rious. This  is  my  coronation  day,  I  have 
long  looked  forward  to  it."  Later  still, 
"Don't  call  me  back;  God  is  calling." 

It  is  the  testimony  of  those  who  were 
privileged  to  stand  around  that  bed,  that 
his  last  four  hours  took  all  the  sting  and 


and  Death  of  D.  L.  Moody    31 

terror  out  of  death,  and  that  the  room 
was  transformed  from  the  place  of 
mourning  to  the  chamber  of  triumph. 
As  his  son  Will  knelt  by  his  side  as  he 
sank,  he  could  not  find  it  in  his  heart  to 
call  him  back.  He  afterward  said  to 
me,  "I  did  call  him  back  once,  but  I 
could  not  find  it  in  my  heart  to  do  it 
again." 

And  triumphant  too,  was  the  scene  as 
we  sat  two  hours  by  that  open  casket  in 
which  that  beloved  form  reposed,  and 
then  lowered  it  into  the  grave.  O, 
blessed  gospel  that  conquers  the  last 
great  enemy — death.  There  is  no  longer 
any  enemy  left  to  fear. 

How  different  from  the  sad  scene  last 
summer  when  wife  and  daughter  sat 
day  by  day  in  mute  despair  by  the  body 
of  the  great  agnostic.  What  a  demon- 
stration of  the  utter  emptiness  of  scep- 
ticism, and  the  all-sufficiency  of  the 
gospel  of  Jesus  Christ. 


32         Lessons  From  the  Lite 

Shall  we  not  believe  in  that  old  book  as 
we  never  have  believed  in  it  before;  study 
it  as  we  have  never  studied  it  before;  be- 
lieve in  the  Holy  Ghost  as  we  have  never 
believed  in  Him  before.  Shall  we  not 
pray  as  we  have  never  prayed  before,  and 
take  up  the  work  that  Mr.  Moody  has 
laid  down,  claiming  the  power  that  he 
claimed,  and  working  with  every  ounce 
of  strength  that  God  gives  us.  until  our 
summons  too  shall  come.  God  is  saying 
to  us  as  He  said  to  Israel  when  Moses 
died :  ' *  Moody  My  senant  is  dead ;  now 
therefore  arise,  go  into  the  land  which  I 
do  give  thee.  There  shall  not  any  man 
be  able  to  stand  before  thee  all  the  days 
of  thy  life.  As  I  was  with  Moody  so  I 
will  be  with  thee ;  I  will  not  fail  thee  nor 
forsake  thee.  Have  not  I  commanded 
thee  ?  Be  strong  and  of  a  good  courage. 
Be  not  afraid,  neither  be  thou  dismayed, 
for  the  Lord  thy  God  is  with  thee  whith- 
ersoever thou  goest." — Josh,  i.1-9. 


^i 


n 


r> 


r^  - 


ry     ^\ 


O    ■**' 


l^g^fS 

^^^V-1 

^^J 

mi 

^|«^^iJ 

m 

1 

mMmi 

REVELL'S  POPULAR  RELIGIOUS  SERIES 

Published  Weekly,  $3.00  per  Annum 

Entered  at  Chicago  Post  Office  as  Second-class  Matter 

Number  245.    March  31, 1900 


